Together We Have Hearts
by SAL-Chan
Summary: VIII turned, his eyes bright but dull, a sudden grin captivating his face. There was an echo of something in his chest that made him remember what was really happening where he really was, in whom. Axel shoved his hands into his pockets and turned, pivot


In a moment of pure whiteness -of acceptance - he spotted him. His hair was bright against the pure white, a color so vibrant that it almost shined. His black cloak moved in a wind that belonged to him alone, his hands clenching and unclenching - as if the limbs were asleep and he was having trouble keeping them awake. Keeping himself together.

His shadow cast a long grey haze on the floor of that never ending white, pure and perfect charcoal gray. He remembered - so long ago - the words whispered as a promise. _'You're never gonna catch me...'_

So he ran, pounded at the ground with his need to catch up. The red heads cloak was fading - hazy gray - melting into the background. _Fading_. He wanted to hold onto something before everything he remember faded into the white around him. The figure in black started to move, forward, away, graying, and he just pushed harder - running with everything he had.

"_Axel!_"

VIII turned, his eyes bright but dull, a sudden grin captivating his face. There was an echo of something in his chest that made him remember what was really happening - where he really was, in whom. Axel shoved his hands into his pockets and turned, pivoting to face him, and waited.

After running for what felt like forever he fell into Axel, all hands and need to feel something. Axel's chest was solid under his cheek, his hands - sure and there and _alive_. Axel's arms held on too - pulling him closer - and Axel smiled as he spoke his name.

Later on, as the landscape of Sora's memory's continued to stretch into eternal white, Axel took Roxas' hand. It was sudden, a movement with no real thought, quick and decided just a moment before it happened. A spark of the memory Roxas had of Axel - something only the brash red head would do after fighting with himself about it for a while.

Roxas had his cloak on again, feeling more at home in it then in his other clothes; his old boots and gloves along with it. The creaking sound of leather gripping leather echoed in the perfect silence. There was a sudden stillness - Axel's hand almost pulling away, regretful - but he closed his hands around Axel's and let it be. Roxas knew that if he let Axel let go, the other Nobody would fade into the whiteness of Sora's memory's like everything else Roxas ever remembered had.

"_What are we going to do_?" Roxas didn't have a voice - not now, not anymore. It sort of filtered off - fading into nothing before it made a sound. Axel turned anyway - hearing the words not spoken - and grinned. Something in Roxas' chest crashed around again, and his grip on Axel's hand tightened. It was apprehension - a certain type of fear of not knowing and knowing at the same time; and wanting to stay exactly where you were - with Axel, in this place - but knowing fully well that it could be taken away at any moment.

"Stay here, I guess." Axel said simply, squeezing his hand back. Axel's voice was faded, like someone had places a muffler over his mouth. Roxas shook his head - trying to remember that rich sound Axel always had in his voice. As if remember by trying to retrieve the sound of Axel's voice, the red head then added, almost as an after thought, "Not that I wouldn't want to find myself on some tropical island somewhere nice and hot, but this is...this is good enough, right?"

Roxas let out a soundless snicker and nodded, swallowing past his fear. Axel's voice rang again - strong and bright - and the haziness in his eyes dissipating, become more real to Roxas then anything before. Roxas' heart was beating quickly - thumping against his chest. From the first time Axel touched his skin - from the moment he turned around - Roxas felt that thumping, strong and real, singing through him. As if summoned by his own heartbeat, a sudden pulse jumped in time with his from under Axel's gloves. The beating of another heart. Simply enough...

"_Anywhere's fine..._" Roxas didn't say, casting his glances outward - toward the endless white. Axel looked out too, toward wherever Roxas was looking, and smiled - a grin that Roxas would always remember, even if he faded into nothing. This Axel, shinny from memory's Roxas managed to pull from his fading past, was enough for him to feel like the real thing was still there. Like the real thing was with him - like he was _real_. For once, he was real.

"_As long as we're together...we have hearts."_


End file.
